Halford & Brough in the Morning - Would The Canucks Actually Change Coaches Mid-Season?

Episode Date: February 10, 2026

In hour three, Mike & Jason tell us what they learned (3:00), plus we hear from the humanoids (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

802 on a Tuesday. I have no idea what we're doing anymore. I was going through the music in the break, and I played this one, and Adog literally goes, oh, that's terrible. Let's play it. What is this one called?

Don't worry. Don't worry about your ratings? That. Just don't worry. Be happy. I don't even know what this is. Cheerful, up-tempo, upbeat, polka between trumpets and accordion.

This is almost, dare I say, Fiesta Friday vibe. A little bit. You don't get a lot of polka in South America, though. Where was it that John Candy's polka group was big? Sheboygan. Sheboygan. Sheboygan.

Sold 50 copies of it there. God, I miss that guy so much. Polka, polka. Left him there all day with the corpse. He's like, are you going to help me? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He came around again, started talking after a few months. You are listening to the Halford & Brough show for some reason on Sportsnet 650.

Halford & Bruff in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have CRA debt? If you do, Sands and Associates could cut that debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. You're going to keep playing the music. Visit them today at Sands-Trustee.com. Rest in peace, Catherine Harrah as well, of course. Yeah. We're reading that scene also.

I know. S-C-TV alumni. Thank you for working that into the middle of the read. You're welcome. Our three of the program. Rest in peace, cookie. Our three of the program is brought to you by Camel and Pound. to be confused with Pambl and Count

real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-dash pound.com. Do you have any other eulogies you'd like to do before we move along? No, that's good. Good. We're coming to live from the Kintech studio. New Year, new opportunity for comfort with orthotics from

Kintech. And if you want to text into the Dunbar Lumber text line, 650, trusted by contractors and DIY champions across Metro Vancouver for generations. Find them at three convene. locations or visit Dunbar Lumber online today. While I've tried to stray away from the Super Bowl halftime talk and all that, Corey did send in a hilarious text when the music was playing.

Very simply asked, is this bad bunny? Yes, it was. Was Bad Bunny one of the classic? Oh, no, we're doing it. No, no, no. I was just going to move past it. You brought it up. Yeah, now I'm moving past it.

Was Bad Bunny one of the classic like you don't watch football? so we'll give you something to argue about topics? Like was that one of the topics that non-football people can be like, I have an opinion and I'd like it hurt. I guess, I, it was, I guess it's not, it shouldn't be bizarre to me. Because every, it's not bizarre now. You knew it was going to be a thing. Yeah, everything is now up for debate in the great culture wars of whatever year we're in right now.

English, I wanted in English. Everything should be. in English. I'm like, can I get this bent out of shape about a 14 minute musical performance in the middle of a football game? You know what I did at half time? I walked the dog. I danced. And actually, like I never danced before. Pedro was upset because

he would have understood. One of the few that knew what was going on. He could have done the translating. Pedro's like, yeah. Pedro's my dog. He's from Mexico. Yeah, right. He gets. I'm glad you clarify that that. I'm a butler. Yeah. Come on, Pedro. Okay. So, we

There's a lot going on right now in both on this show and in the end basket. In case you're just tuning in today, it's been a sort of like upside down, left is right, down is up kind of day. We started at 6 a.m. with a guest and then we rolled three guests off the show in three straight segments. So now we're kind of playing ketchup, not the condiment, but let's get caught up. And so we did yesterday sort of like what happened and we ran through it. Now we're going to do what we learns and ask us anythings at the appropriate time. A little earlier than usual, though. You have one.

As it relates to housing at the... The housing crisis, Jason. No, we're talking about housing at the Olympics. I learned that Canada will definitely... And I'm talking about the men's hockey team, definitely be staying in a very nice hotel in Italy. Now, the reason I say that is Luke Fox wrote an article and the headline is

Canada, USA, taking different approaches to Olympic Village. So the Americans are all like, we're going to stay in the Olympic village and the Cichuk brothers and they're going to be roommates and they're all going to be running around the dorms and they're like, why are you guys so sweaty? You know, like, you know, that sort of thing. And stacking their mattresses, all of it. And the Canadians, well, they're going to give it a try. So Luke wrote in the article, given the hotel option, the Americans men squad loaded with multi-millionaires has decided. to embrace the bare bones college lifestyle for the full two weeks. Yep.

The Canadian men spent the first couple nights in the village, but will also be testing out hotel life. Canada's leadership group is making the call. And this is one of the funniest quotes who ever heard from Darcy Kemper. Whatever we do will do as a team. We're going to make the decision that we feel is giving us the best chance to win. and then Kemper might as well have said, we are definitely staying in a nice hotel.

So this is... Chuck's are building bunk beds. Seriously. Why would you stay if you had the option? I know you want to get the experience, but I bet there's a lot of distractions in the Olympic Village. Yep. I bet it's not super quiet all the time.

However, the counterpoint to that is that, and I know where this is going, is that the Americans are going to position themselves as the fun-loving, we're here to embrace all of it. Not like those snooty business-like Canadian hockey players who are staying in a five-star hotel. And if they were to get two hours of sleep last night, it was the best experience in my life.

Yeah, that's right. I have cockroaches in my bed, and I like it that way. You can- Sleeping in a twin. Well, I will say- In a cardboard. Yeah. So I guess.

there was a video circulating and I apologize for not knowing the athlete but they took an iPad and flipped it over twice and the bed is the width of three iPads it's very narrow. I mean it's what you'd expect. It's the Olympics. It's athlete housing.

Now, the interesting part to me is that when pressed on this, the Canadian players knew exactly where the line of questioning could end up and they were very coy about what their plans were. They weren't ready to commit to anything.

I was reading an article that Arpan Basu and Mike Russo wrote for the athletic, and they asked Drew Doughty about it. They asked Nate about it. McKinnon's answers. Always the best. They asked Sam Bennett, Logan Thompson. All they would say is like it's a hybrid model. We're going to spend some time in the village sleeping there,

but we're also going to, like you said, test out the hotels. It's like they didn't want to commit to anything publicly. They said hybrid and all Canucks fans were like, just don't use that word. Please. We love a hybrid plan. Are you going to have any fun while you're here? No.

So I do want to get to Nate. Yep. So you think they'll stay in a hotel, right? They're going to stay in a hotel. There's no way they're going to be like, let's stay in the village. I think they're going to stay in a hotel. Celebrini met a girl. He wants to stay in the village.

Well, it's what happened to Brett Hediken. Yeah. That's true. That's true. If you were staying in the hotel, that wouldn't happen. Maclin is now in love. He will not be the rest of the tournament. I don't know.

I don't know if it's a particular. good thing that they're staying in the hotel though because there's going to be a story or two around it that's and it well you know how these things work you've worked in media long I think they got the character to handle that but we'll see Adog you kind of reference this

and this is amazing so Arpon Basu wrote for the athletic a story about Nathan McKinnon and the headline was Canada's Nathan McKinnon is not at the Olympics to enjoy himself. And I guess Arpon was interviewing him and he was saying like, hey, do you want to enjoy the Olympic experience? It must be great to be here among all the other athletes here, be able to mingle with them.

And McKinnon said, I want to enjoy myself, but I'm not here to enjoy myself. I'm going to do everything I can to play well, and hopefully it's enough, and hopefully I can contribute. So Arpont said, don't you have to take this all in? And he said, no. No. That was his response. Follow up.

Not even a little bit? No. You know when... Even Coupe, the coach, is trying to get across to them. Like, this is a great experience. You guys go out and have fun. Go watch some of the other stuff. And we are actually seeing some pictures of Team Canada all together at some of the other.

They were the speed skating this morning. Yeah, right. And but still, McKinnon is like, there's another great quote. I have fun playing hockey. I go on vacations every summer. See, I love McKinnon so much. You know, sometimes you get those teams when they're embarking on their trip and they're about to, you know, get on the plane and they're like, this is a business trip for us. us and you're like,

ha-ha. But, like, I think Nathan McKinnon genuinely believes it. He doesn't, it's how he's why. Yeah, he doesn't understand it as being, like, ironic.

Yeah, but it's also... He's not wrong either. What? It's a business trip. How much does this do for his image if he has an outstanding Olympics? Well, his image is just pretty well defined,

I would say. We know what Nathan McKinnon's all about. He always wants more, though. Yeah. You know, here's the thing. I do think there's some merit to players embracing all of the experience.

because part of the charm of this is when hockey, although it's professionals and they're making more than all the other athletes there, it's all supposed to be about everyone's going there to experience the same thing. Whether you're like, I don't know, you barely qualified for the snow cross and this is a part-time job for you and you've got to go back to your regular life after this, or you're making millions playing in the NHL for two weeks. You're all kind of on the same playing field at the Olympic.

because that's supposed to be the charm and the allure of it. I respect the fact that a lot of the hockey players go over there and try to embrace it, even though it's tough. I'd love to see Marshawn and McKinnon interact with each other. That would be a great pair. Marchon and McKinnon. Yeah, because complete polar opposites. Like, Marshawn's there to have a good time. He's there to have fun.

McKinn is not a very, I don't know about that. I don't think they're polar opposites. I don't know about that. None of them are. They're vicious competitors. Well, they're both competitors, but Marchon's a fun-loving guy. He tries to be joking, but... McKininin likes Vaseline on toast, you know?

It's very, very opposite guys. I kind of hate myself for bringing this up, but... Okay. The quotes from McKinnon, and now juxtapose them with Foote's quote on Petey. Oh, man, you went right back there. I mean... Right back there. It's like, McKinnon's like, I'm here to play hockey.

I love hockey. I have fun playing hockey. I take vacations in the summer. I'm not here to take it all in. I'm here to play hockey. I'm here to win. Adam Foote. Pedersons willing to talk about us.

about us with hockey now, like about hockey now. Like, you know, like he's, he's willing to take coaching. He may not take criticism, but he is at least willing to acknowledge that he's ready to take criticism. Yeah. By the way, on that note, okay, I'll pivot off because I was putting together some stuff, the Canucks related stuff, oddly enough, not really my forte. About foot and the coaching thing. We talked a lot yesterday about Mike McDonald in the wake of the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl.

and what a great job that he did. And third youngest coach to ever win a Super Bowl. And now you're talking about him as being among the elites in the National Football League in terms of not, I wouldn't even say best young coaches, like best coaches in the NFL, right? And then we talked about the importance of coaching and how it matters to the group. And yes, you win with talent and you win with players, but also how fundamentally important it is for a coach to come in and set a standard and set a structure and tell everybody. this is the way things work and this is the way things don't, right? And I started thinking.

I was like, you know, it is very odd to me that there's not more of a push from the higher reaches of this organization to consider making a coaching change right now. And there were two reasons for it. And one was I went back and looked at the amount of times that Rutherford and company openly and repeatedly criticized the Boudreau-era Canucks for their lack of defense structure and system. To the point where Rutherford, then the president of hockey up, still is, went on after hours and lambasted the coach for having a bad training camp and a total lack of systems

and style and defensive structure in the early parts of that season. And it was like untenable for the organization. It's like we are playing so loose and so sloppy and there's so many bad reads out there. we can't have this go on. Bad puck management, everything. To the point where they expedited the talk at hire and got that done as quickly as possible

to get Boudre out of there because I think there was an undercurrent of the longer they play under the structuralist system with Boudreau, the more damage it might do to the group. Is that fair to suggest what I'm putting out here? Absolutely. Now, second part of this thing,

remember how important it was for this organization to bring Talkit in, not at the end of the year, but to get rid of Boudreau in the middle part of that season and get Talked in to set some of the foundations for the following season. In fact, when they would talk about that great 2023, 2024 campaign that the Canucks had, the executive would often say, don't forget,

the building blocks were put in last season. When Taka came aboard, what was it, January? And that was our decision. Wasn't it a good one? So what? Great. So here's a question for everybody. What's changed?

What's changed from that thinking a few years ago to what's going on right now? Because there's a lot of parallels going on right now. There's a lot of guys that are coming in after games looking completely dumbfounded as to what the system is and what the structure is and what they're supposed to be doing on the ice. You got a head coach who in a number of these losses talks about the mistakes that guys are making the same mistakes with great frequency and none of it seems. to be getting fixed. You also hear a lot of rumblings and whispers and everything else behind the scenes

that the players don't quite understand exactly what the head coach is telling them to do on a regular basis. Clarity comes up a lot. Right? In the lack thereof. If next season matters and make no mistake, every season matters in the NHL, you don't just have throwaway seasons. And you want to start building, even take the culture part away from it, but just the basic

fundamentals of how you want to play and what your identity is moving. forward. Why would you waste the remainder of this year on a guy that isn't putting it together for you? Okay, two reasons I have. I know why. Number one, it's because they chose foot. And number two, possibly money? They, they, you guys are missing the main one. What's that? The coach bump, new coach bump. They don't want to risk bringing in a new guy that gives the team a bump and puts them on a winning stream. That is, that is why. Because it happens almost every time with the Canucks, they get a new coach, they go on some sort of winning streak. Andy.

They are so far back. So far back. So I don't want to take a chance. Don't take a chance. I know it's improbable that they will somehow get knocked out of the worst last place, but nevertheless. They are seven points back of St. Louis. I know. I get it. I get it. It would be difficult for them to catch up to the second first team. At the current pace where all the other teams are playing and where the Canucks are at, to catch anybody, the Canucks would need to play roughly 600

hockey. What's the point, though? Why bring went into this point. For everything I just said. No, just write it out, man. Just finish the season like this. So just have this lousy structure. Yes. And just let it fester. Right? Wow. You'll fix it next year. Even though the same manager group has said that in the past, we haven't allowed these things to fester because we feel it's bad for the group. Well, it's a different scenario this year because they actually do have a really good chance picking first overall. Well, remember, Dolly came on our show on Friday and talked about the coach being under contract for a couple more years, I think, one or two more years.

Rutherford and Alvin been under contract. And how, I mean, his inference was that this ownership group doesn't want to pay people to not work for them. And, I mean, Alfred, I have time for your argument. I don't think it's going to happen. I don't think. Like, there's not going to be a coaching change. But mid-season, what will be crazy? and I can't believe this would happen.

But Dolly, his report kind of was like, oh, God, would they do that? Is if foot is back next season. Not a chance. No way. I don't think so. I mean, unless they're willing to throw away another year for a bunch of drafts.

The team does not like to pay coaches or anyone to not play for them, right? And most teams, there's like, yeah, it's a cost of doing business. Look at the NFL. How many times you just cut players and you're like, yeah, we'll eat it. Because we have to. Because the same, I think the same discussion is going to come up

if they attempt to trade with Leah's Pedersen. Because any team that's acquiring Pedersen is going to ask, they're at least going to ask, can you retain some of this salary? Okay, so just to my earlier point, I did not mean for it to be this advocacy to get rid of the coach, but I think it brings up a legitimate viable question you could ask of the management group is like,

if your previous behavior was predicated on all of these reasons, why don't they apply anymore? And is it because for the reasons you're talking about, that you don't want to pay a guy not to work for you? Is it because you're genuinely scared of winning games? You'd never say it out loud. And secondly, there's a lot of other things you can do to not win. Like, they're an awful team right now.

I don't think you're advocating firing a coach. I think you're just saying, why is it so different this year? What's the significant difference? Is it that you want to lose more games? Is that it? I think it is, though, because they have kind of acknowledged, like, this is the year to lose. Sure.

Well, if they bring footbag next year, they're saying the same thing again. I mean, they're saying we're doing this all over again. Or they're saying I'm not allowed to fire them. Yeah, but I mean, if you bring them back, it's just going to be, it's the same thing's going to happen. They'll just be tanking for picks. And maybe that's a good thing, but it'll be another full season of what we're watching right now.

I mean, that's a hard sell to the fan base. even the fan base that wants to rebuild. My argument would be that part of the reason that they fired Boudreau maybe never had anything to do with what they were saying publicly, I think they just didn't like them. And part of the reason that they're keeping foot around right now is because they don't want egg on their faces.

Well, Baconator texted in, and he said we didn't mention this, but we did. He said, you are failing to raise the fact that it's easy to scapego to coach they didn't hire Boudreau. To fire foot now, a guy they hired would admit they were wrong, not apples to apples. Yeah, we were kind of, we mentioned that. I think Baconator is trying to say the part

that I wasn't saying out loud. Come on Baconator. Yeah, come on, Baconator. I think he's trying to say the part that I didn't say out loud was like the behavior and the tendencies and what happened in the past, maybe it wasn't as straight up as we thought it was. And maybe what's going on right now

isn't really reflective of this current management group really caring about what happens on the ice. And when we talk about culture and building a foundation, and teaching guys to play the right way and having defensive structure and having tenets that you abide by that it doesn't really matter.

Because I would argue that there's never a point in the NHL where you're not trying to teach that stuff. It's what everyone says publicly. What do they say every time that a young guy makes a mistake on the ice? They'll learn from this and they'll be better. Yeah. That's the pot of the gold at the end of the rainbow. And foot will also add that that's why we're losing.

It's not me. It's a very young team. It's a very young team. We got a lot of young players out there. Did I mention they're young? They're very inexperienced. I was given these players, the younger players. And that's why we're losing.

Because the follow-up question would be like, when do you think it's going to happen? The learning and getting better from the mistakes. Is it next year? Is it the year after? Will they still be young next year? He's like, yeah. Just a little less young.

All right. We're up against it for time. Got a lot more to get into on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650, including your what we learns. Get them in, Dunbar, Limer, text message in, It's 650, 650, hashtag it WWL. Let us know what did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650.

Canucks talk with Jamie Dodd and Thomas Drans. We'll dive deep into all that's happening with the Vancouver Canucks. Listen 12 to 2 p.m. on SportsNet 650 or wherever you get your podcasts. Now for my favorite part of the show. What I say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God. This is always dead.

It's what we learn time It's what we learn time It's what we learn time On the show On a Tuesday, happy Tuesday, everybody, Halford Gruff, the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have credit card debt?

If you do, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands. That's trustee. dot com. We are an hour three of the program. It is what we learned time. Hour three is Bradshaw by Campbell and Pound, real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit on the internet at Campbell-Dash pound.com today.

It did it. No Pamble and Cown today, folks. I'm looking at pictures of Team Canada taking the metro in Milan after going to the short track speed skating event today. We're ordinary people. There's a picture of Tom Wilson looking at one of the plastic handles, the loop handles that hang down from the metal on the metro like he's never seen one before. What is this contraption?

Says Tom Wilson. Do you think Sid has them in buddies so they don't get lost? Do you think he does a head count? Yeah. On the train. Marshawn is trying to use everyone else's metro card so he doesn't have to use his own.

Who do you think it would be the most poorly behaved? I would go with the youngest, probably Celebrini? No. That's where my way I went. The most poorly behaved would be Celebrini, the kid who's probably scared of doing anything wrong?

No chance. Who do you think? No chance. Dowdy or Marcian. You go to the polar opposite. The old guys are going to be the... Yeah, Dowdy just... Wow.

Yeah, he's been... It's why he's still in this grade. He just keeps getting left behind. I mean, the picture, if you go to Wish, Vinsky's account on social media and see the picture of Team Canada. It's really great. Sid does look like he is the elementary school teacher on a field trip.

Chaproen. Big chaperone. He's kind of like he's a few feet away from them, standing in the top right corner. And he just looks like this is my class. There's some good ones and, you know, some naughty ones. There's like a definite gap there. He's off to the side for sure. He's off to the side.

Yeah. Yeah. He understands. He understands the vibe. Okay, fire up the dot matrix. Humanoid submissions for what we learned. Brought to you, as always, by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. And of course, now a big splash in Tuasun, homemade dough, premium local ingredients and authentic cooking methods.

AJ's is for diehard pizza people and water slide people. Dine in or order online at AJ's. Da Pizza. makers of the famous wet pizza. Love a good wet pizza. Iron Blair, what I learned, the Seahawks won, yeah, yeah, but Drake May had the worst four games

in playoff football history. What a strange year in the NFL. I can be really curious to see how Drake May bounces back from this. Yeah, the playoffs were very, very difficult for him, which is weird because they won three or four playoff games. I was watching that game

in just the plays that were planned for Drake May and his execution. And I realize, even a tough spot, right? His offensive line fell apart. But like, I was like this guy, this guy was an MVP,

nearly won the MVP, this guy, this guy right here? So remember how you, you were asking me yesterday because I waded into Patriots Twitter. Yeah. And they were like,

what's the response been from there? Because I think you were kind of shocked that they were as disappointed and as disheartened as they were. Because it wasn't a, astutely pointed out, it wasn't a gut punch loss. They were,

but they did get really annihilated. in the biggest game of the year? Yeah, they got embarrassed. They got embarrassed, I would say. The amount of vitriol saved, not for Drake May, but for the offensive line, was what I really noticed. Like, they knew that that offensive line crumbled under pressure. And I don't think it helped that Collinsworth was openly calling out offensive linemen during the game on the broad.

But that was a storyline heading into the game, too. It just kind of blew up in terrible fashion in the Super Bowl. Like, again, I know I meant. What's the kid's name is Will Campbell? Will Campbell has had a real top 48 hours. Drake May or you're going to run away together? Just they're never going to come back. So the stat from yesterday or sorry from Sunday was that the Seahawks at one point had tied the record for most sacks in a Super Bowl with seven.

I believe four other teams prior to the Seahawks had also matched that mark. A statistical correction though kept the Seahawks from keeping that mark because when Devin Wetherspoon hit Drake May and it caused the Yichena Nuwosu touchdown. originally credited as a strip sack fumble return for touchdown, changed to an interception. Yeah. Return for a touchdown. So it actually kept the Seahawks out of the record book. But if you put that on the total and you look at the totality,

they also set records for most quarterback pressures in a game. Like it was one of, I think I called it one of the greatest QB harassments in Super Bowl history. So you can't put that all on May. you have to look at the guys protecting. You're like, you did a really bad job of this today. Also, one final note on that. There were a couple stories going around.

I think the athletic had one that Patriots defenders had been tipped off by McDonald that the Patriots had a tell with their offensive linemen when it was either going to be a pass or a run. So the scratching his nose or something? Where he was yelling like, pass. I don't know what's going on. I don't know what was going on. But it was very obvious that they had read some level. of the Patriots book prior to Super Bowl

and they were all over them. Okay, we allowed some Ask Us Anything's in here. Josh, let's go. What was it like being a Seahawks fan pre-Schneider? Was it like being a Canucks fan? Was there a moment it felt like it changed? As a 49ers and Canucks fan, I've chosen poorly.

I don't know about that, 49ers, but I didn't really hate the Seahawks team on account of being so impressed by them. But it got me thinking, when did they become the forward-thinking smart organization they are now. Well, first of all, my first thought is like,

it's hilarious because a few years ago they were not considered a forward-thinking smart organization. Schneider had lost his fastball. Pete Carroll was, you know, a dinosaur in the game. So, you know, the last few years have definitely helped the stock of their

general manager. But I don't think the Seahawks overall in their history have been especially poorly run. I mean, they had Mike Holmgren in there, running it and he did a fine job. They nearly won the Super Bowl. It was Holmgren, Bob Witsitt,

Tim Ruskell, and then Schneider's been the, since he's been over a decade. Bob Ferguson. Yeah, I'm just trying to go through the list. Bob Wittsett was before Mike Holmgren. Right. And then Ruskel took over from Wittsett.

I think that's how it went? Ferguson was in there for a year. Anyway, they what I do remember is that they had a few regime change but everything really crystallized for them when Schneider came in and more importantly, Schneider's big hire was Carroll.

That was what sort of set him on a course for success because you'll remember they had issues at the head coaching position post-Homegrin. It was not a laundry list, including the rather infamous one-year Jim Mora Jr. Sting, remember that? That was awful. Now, the thing about the Carroll hire,

if we're going to go in the wayback machine here, is that he did not come to the Seahawks organization highly rated at all. He had a lot of decorations as a collegiate coach, but his NFL coaching resume was scant and it was not impressive. He was also leaving USC with the program under investigation, and a lot of people were just like, yeah, he's running away. And don't forget, he's coming to Seattle where there's a lot of U-Dub fans. They're not exactly USC fans.

And they didn't believe that Pete's style of rock, raw up with guys. And he was very much a players coach. I mean, he established that at USC, but they didn't think it was going to work in the NFL, especially the second time around. But obviously it did. And then, of course, you know, Schneider went on to have the first great iteration

of drafts and developing and building a defense. And he's done it a second time around. I mean, we asked Softie when we had him on last week, where he sits on the pantheon of great executives in Seattle sports history, never mind in, you know, obviously Seahawks franchise history. But you want to talk about team builders in that city. He's probably at the top of the list right now,

given what he's done, the architect of two Super Bowl teams. Did you hear there's some reports that the NBA is going to be, they're going to announce it? Could be a big year for Seattle. Seattle and Vegas expansion. They're board of government.

They said that it's going to happen. It convinced James Dolan to do it. Yeah, they're like, just do it. Okay. They, they make a lot of money.

I believe it's going to happen at the summer's board of governors meeting when they do the Vegas. That was a report. Yeah. Not confirmed. A couple of reports. But it does make me wonder, and I think we've all wondered, you know, how does that affect the Cracken?

How does that affect the popularity of the NHL in Seattle where the Seahawks just won the Super Bowl? The Mariners are having a few good years. There's been a lot of excitement about the Mariners. U-Dub football always gets a lot of attention. and now the NBA just know everyone that when the NBA comes back to Seattle that team is going to be embraced

they are going to be love there's going to be so much nostalgia and if they can call them the Sonics the amount of Sonics gear that you will see in Seattle will be incredible there will be a renewed love affair with the it would be like the Jets going back

to Winnipec. That's going to be the comparable. And then the Cracken are like, we've got Chandler-Stevenson, you know, right in Montour. That's why they're going, that's why they're going after guys like Panera. They need the star power. They know it. It's obvious. Hey, follow-up question for you. If the Sonics come back to Seattle, well, they still have a Pacific Northwest rivalry with the Blazers in Portland, because there's a lot going on in Portland right now with that team. Yeah, there's rumors that the Blazers might, I mean, someone was speculating. Someone was speculating that it's not trending well for the Blazers and the Blazers of course. Well, to be fair, they weren't speculating

on the trending. It's not trending well for the Blazers because there's like a bitter dispute going on about building a new arena. Yeah. The motor center's old. And they haven't officially sold it yet, right? Because is that still in Paul Allen's trust? Dunden. Tom Dunden's buying the- Tom Dunden is buying it. But is he closed on the deal? No, no. The deal hasn't closed yet, but people are already suggesting that part of the, not necessarily hang up, but the finality of this is Dundon looking at the arena situation and understanding that the motor center, I think they just want to build something new, like flat out. I don't think they want to go to renovation. I mean, that place was nice when I was going down to games in Oregon

in the 90s. Yeah. Every time I hear the word, the name Tom Dundon, I think about, it was it Homer's old principal, Dundlinger? What a poll. What an amazing poll. Anyway, the line from the... Homer has like a plunger on his head or something like that one. Bill Orum wrote the piece for the Oregonian, and the quote that he had was,

the only person who benefits from all of the hiccups at the Motor Center boondoggle is the over-leveraged incoming owner who knows his new team's greatest value lies in his ability to move it. And then he asked, the NBA would never let another Seattle happen. would it? Interesting times in Oregon. Jamie, the Armstrong fisherman, what I learned, Mike McDonald says the Super Bowl win should put Cooper Cup in the Hall of Fame.

The former third round pick out of Eastern Washington now has 681 receptions for over 8,000 yards and 59 touchdowns in his career, along with a Pro Bowl, an all-pro selection, an offensive player of the year award, two Super Bowls and a Super Bowl MVP. seems like a shoe into me. Was he an elite receiver for long enough in the NFL? That's a great question. It's a great question. He was an elite receiver without question.

For a short period of time, he was the best receiver in the NFL, at least statistically. And he got the words to earn it. Now, the resume, I got to say, it's pretty stacked. Two Super Bowls, one Super Bowl MVP, as you mentioned, offensive player of the year, all pro. Pro Bowl.

Only two years where he was a thousand-yard receiver. The body of work, collectively, is not the prototypical Hall of Fame career. He wasn't a Larry Fitzgerald. He had a lot of injuries. Yeah, but he's also, he was able to achieve an awful lot during his prime. It's a very interesting case study. I think he should be a first ballot hall of famer in front of Bill Belichick and Robert Kraft.

You see how easy it is to get in here? Why couldn't you guys do it? Why couldn't you guys do it? Oh, Ginderlinger. Simpson, is that a plunger stuck on your head? I can't believe one, you remembered that I don't even remember that

and then two you found the clip in like a minute and a half teaching this course will ease my pain as I recently lost my wife Will this be on the test? No Crosses off dead wife Austin and Langley

What we learned Tom Vielander Had to travel to the Canucks practice facility in Sweden To get some work in over the Olympic Brick this guy's work ethic appears to be great. It was Dollywall reporting that yesterday that Veylander went back to Sweden

because he wanted to put in some work. Dollywall reported that he went back to Sweden to work out and do all that stuff. And then a lot of people inferred that he had to do it because there was nowhere to do that here. All right? I'm just saying, you know, Sasha in Darkest North Van, hashtag WWO, what we learned.

Canada's Road to 2026 for the People World Cup. It is now set. They've got friendlies against Iceland on March 28th, Tunisia on March 31st, Uzbekistan on June 1st, and they announced this morning, their final game will be on June 5th in Montreal against the Republic of Ireland. Sasha then asked.

Troy Parrott, how are they going to contain him? That's a weird one for Ireland, because they don't know if they're going to be in the World Cup or not. They still don't know. They can still qualify. I guess they booked it. Well, I mean, you can play the game out of their way, but optimistically, sure, why not?

Yeah, but yeah, they're right in the throes of the qualifiers, which are going in March. Sasha then asks, do you think this tests the team enough? Honestly, Sasha, I wish that they would have had one of the four games against the higher quality opponent. This isn't to say that these won't be decent tests. Actually, I think Tunisia on the 31st is going to be the most difficult of them.

I wish that they've been able to book a little bit more of a higher profile opponent. I think it would have served them better. For their final warm-up game? I think it would have served them better. I think it would have given. given them the most reasonable facsimile of what a game might feel like at the World Cup. Now, that being said, if they get lucky here and the Republic of Ireland does qualify for the World Cup and comes into this game having got through the qualifiers, that June 5th game will be played at a

pretty high pitch and a pretty high level of intensity. And it'll be the kind of, here's the thing. I will say this, all these teams that they booked against are the kind of teams that Canada needs to beat if they're going to have a successful World Cup. There are going to be some teams that they'll go up against that they will be decided underdogs and quite frankly probably won't have much of a shot of winning. The American team has...

The American books really high profile. Has Belgium, Portugal, Senegal, and then... Is this a warm-up or is that? Germany? Yeah. Germany. They booked some really high-profile friendlies.

Okay. So... All right, that's the Canadian team. Tatiana and Langley, what we learned. Prospect update. Braden Coots has 22 points in 15 games since joining the Prince Albert Raiders. Yeah, the Raiders are a good team.

And there's a chance that Braden Coots makes a deep run in the playoffs. And then he's going to be expected to be one of the big dogs on the Canadian World Junior team next year if he plays for them. And we're still not 100% sure where he's going to play next season.

Because correct me if I'm wrong. The rule about one CHL player being allowed to play in the HL that still isn't finalized yet? Laddie, would you know about you? You might know more about this. I know there's a lot of pushback and a lot of owners that don't want that to happen. Right. Yeah, but they would lose it. How about you lose your top star and he's allowed to go out in the HL? Sure, everything's going so well for the CHL. I think just

everything's coming up great for us. Yeah, kind of two minds of that. Like I used to not like the rules that protected the Canadian Hockey League, but now I think they actually, like they need it because the NCAA thing is going to greatly disrupt that entire, like, and we're not talking about the individual, like the Canadian Hockey League as

a whole, it's going to be greatly affected by this. At the same time, I don't know how far the protection rules should go at the expense of, like I've, never liked this, you can't put your prospects in the American. It's not like the operations crumbling you got it. You know what I mean? Like it's still

to exist. It's just a different landscape. Especially if he needs it. Like if he's far above the WHL, like he should be in the HAL, playing against better opponents. I'll go back to my earlier thought. When we talk about the expansion of the National Hockey League now at 32 teams, and everyone complaining about the lack

of high-end talent and everything, I've always gone back to the same thing. I wonder if the answer is going to be fast-tracking more of these prospects so that you are going to inevitably see, and I don't know what it's going to be to the betterment or detriment of the game, but you are going to see more young players in the League. And the best way to do that is to get them in environments where they can hone their skills

quicker. And that means plucking them out of junior and putting them in the American League. Or I think in the case of McKenna, he's probably benefited from playing NCAA hockey as opposed to playing junior hockey. You play against older individuals. You play a more mature game. You're more ready to go, right? You get a bunch of doubters saying you're not ready because your play takes a bit of a dip. As we've seen with McKenna, just give it some time. I mean, you got to, you go to acknowledge. And the bar scene is great too. It's fun. Yeah. You get to live a party lifestyle. It's good times.

In college. Frank from Delta asked us anything, do you guys use the moo cow at home with your family? Yes. I actually introduced it during family discussions. I laid out the official moo cow rules. Now, whenever a conversation starts dragging

on or gets a little too spicy, someone can moo cow and meeting adjourned. Thanks Alfred and Brough for saving my marriage and at least three family dinners. The moo cow at my house would get overused. It would just be like, you have some homework tonight, right? Mookal.

Like, it would just be totally abused. I don't think it would work like that. I don't think it would work very well. Frank is the only person in the history of the world who has moved his wife and said it saved his marriage. We have a little book that my one-year-old plays with. It has like a cow noise on it. Yeah. And we actually use that.

like a mukau button. Just press it and yeah. Works great. Do you get muk out? All the time. By my own kids. Yeah. I was like,

God, I don't know what the Korean baseball trivia. Kevin and Port Moody with Anascus anything. Your thoughts on Tom Wilson playing with McDavid at the Olympics? I loved it when Coop rolled it out. I think it's a great idea.

I want Tom Wilson and honestly Sam Bennett to be major, major contributing factors at these Olympics. It's Wilson McDavid celebrating. Right? Correct. Correct. So if a single person even looks at Celebrini, Wilson will lose it. Yeah. I know that there's going to be that towing of the line where you can't do all the Tom Wilson things.

Wilson is going to have at least one big hit, though, isn't he? And the hope is that it's not head contact and he gets tossed out of the game. And you know why I want this? It's because we lost it at the junior level. It doesn't exist anymore. True. It's true. Canada does not go in and has a big physically robust or two in this case with Bennett.

Guys that they're going to roll, you're going to be like, we're going to make your life very miserable for the next 60 days. Or potentially put someone out of the tournament. I mean, it is hockey, and look what happened in the women's game. Yeah. I mean, that was, would that hit have been legal in the PWHL? I don't think so because it was

like an awkward hit, right? I think it might have been called still, but... Correct me if I'm wrong, but the checks also have a reputation of playing exceptionally physical hockey. Like, that was part of going into that game. Because there was four Canadians that got lumped in that, and I don't know Poulan left and didn't return, but a couple exited. and then return. So again, you go into these tournaments, and I think there's two things.

It's where do you find an edge on someone and what your identity is? And you just milk that for all it's worth because it's a short tournament. It's the same thing if you find the line combination that works, you're just going to be like, get back out there. Like, keep going. We have four or five games to get the business done. You also don't want a Wilson penalty to cost the team huge, though. And there's the toll. That's the risk. That is absolutely the risk. You're going to call things way tighter, obviously. The risk. In an international hockey, there's no.

excuse for head contact. Which I think is nonsense because if you hit through someone and you're tall and you contact their head, and people are like, some people are like, in rugby, they tackle at the knees.

I was like, oh, you want guys going after the knees? That's good. Should we do that now? Should we do that? Yeah. I think that will... See, there's a difference between body checking and tackling. Like, I love what they did here. I love that they've got Wilson and Bennett. I think it's great. I really, I really hope that these guys have a big impact on the tournament because that's the kind of thing

that's going to differentiate you. It's loaded with talent and loaded with offensive ability. And good goal-tending. Okay. Music means we got to say goodbye. Thank you all for listening. Thank you all for contributing today. It's been a lot of fun. We will be back tomorrow. Same time. Same channel. For now, though, we got to say goodbye. Signing off. I have been Mike Alfred. He's been Jason Brough. He's been A-Dog and he's been Laddie. This has been the Halford & Brough show on Sportsman, 650.